Is It Dry Skin or Dandruff

Patients often complain that moisturizers just don’t help the dry skin next to their nose, what’s going on? It is correct that dry skin usually appears to have flakes or scales and unfortunately most people assume anytime they see flaking on their skin that they have dry skin. The reality is that flaking skin is a common result of many different forms of inflammation in the skin and dryness is just one of them.

So when people see flaking next to the nose, or in the eyebrows, or up at the hairline actually that is not dry skin that usually is a form of dandruff. What we call “Seborrheic Dermatitis” and it is a very characteristic location for having seborrheic or dandruff. To treat this instead of using a moisturizer there are many different over-the-counter shampoos that either have as an active ingredient salicylic acid, tar, zinc or selenium that should be used to shampoo your scalp and also bring some of that shampoo on to your other affected areas of your face daily. If that does not work to help the flaking than see your dermatologist who will undoubtedly give you some topical treatment creams for the treatment of your facial dandruff not dry skin.

Commonly, people mistake flaky skin around the nose as a symptom of dry skin when it can in fact be something very different. Dr. Schultz will discuss dry skin versus dandruff and some ways to treat both.